I opened up my chimney breast but had to brick it back up...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- Hi all 👋 A couple of weeks ago, I widened our chimney breast and installed a concrete prestressed lintel as the previous stove was so small, it didn't heat up the room at all.
It had also been shoe-horned in, and after consulting with local stove companies, all said the fireplace needed to be bigger for a more sufficient fire for the size of our room.
However, the quotes we had for opening it up was expensive, so I decided to take matter in my own hands - but couldn't finish the job in my previous video as there was a pile of bricks and mortar hidden behind the chimney void.
So, after using a SDS hammer drill to remove them, this week, I'm showing you how I had to brick it back up with a mix of breezeblocks and red bricks.
Hope you enjoy!
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I have another question I should've asked! Should regular plasterboard or pink fire resistant plasterboard be used on the face of the chimney to dot and dab?
They used pink fire resistant on the inside of my chimney. Dont suspect a company will spend extra on that if they didnt need to :)
@@Swarm0r Hmm, I wouldn't use any type of plasterboard on the inside of a chimney. It isn't fireproof, just resists heat a little longer.
Fire rated plasterboard is more intended to slow down fires, so if you have a stud wall in a kitchen, then this is where it would be effective including the ceilings.
Your chimney breast is made of brick offering all the fire resistance you need, so in my opinion standard plasterboard will be fine. Chimney breasts can get warm, but won't hit temperatures that will trouble a plasterboard or plasterboard adhesive.
My husband is a fire door inspector on commercial buildings. He wouldn’t use any plasterboard in it. I just slows a fire, not stop it. He said to tile against the bricks with mastic and grout.
@@Christopher_T_Paulthe lady asked about the face of the chimney, not inside. Cement board can be used inside if needed and pink plasterboard on the face.
Hi Vikkie , If you don't have any plasticiser just use a quick squirt of washing up liquid just to make your mix a bit pliable. You don't need a backer board you only need it if the wall is uneven but you got a straight level wall you won't need a backer board just tile on to your wall, you have done a neat job. Great video Take care
I have a tip - I noticed you are using a mixing board (I had exactly the same) until I discovered It's much easier to mix a batch In a bucket with a sturdy mixing paddle + cheap drill. That's all I use it for. I can't tell you how much time, effort and hassle it's saved me, all for about £30. If you're doing a lot of mixing (not just cement), and don't want the expense, and hassle or moving/storing a cement mixer - it will make your life a lot easier - I did for me! Great video and keep up the good work!
I do that on small jobs on road cordless sds and adaptor and paddle boom perfect blend
I lined mine with 5mm steel sheets, sprayed black using stove paint, screwed into the brickwork in the corners, very neat finish and helps reflect the heat back too
render it with sand and cement... looks good painted and looks better than tiles, glad we rendered ours and it worked out really well.
Is there any risk of it cracking with the heat / cooling it will experience being near the fireplace ?
I've since read that adding lime reduces the risk, but was too chicken to try it
@@ratgreen perhaps i should have said...i was talking about the hole inside the chimney where the stove will be... we had ours done last year and no cracking at all since
Well as a bricklayer you would make a good carpenter 😂😂😂😂😂
Great job Vikkie and thanks for the shout-out ❤
Thanks so much again - was a very useful video 😀
Another great video. Its amazing what you achieve. Nice to hear the shout out for Rag'n'Bone Brown too !
Another great video! Thank you 🙂
Glad you liked it 😀
I like the white and the neutral - well done Vicki 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💕
Thanks so much ❤️
Gosh that looked fiddly as hell Vikkie, well done . Those tiles, love the black ones , but mid grey mix could look good too.
That's a super job you have done there! I had to do the same with my fireplace 12 years ago but used reclaimed Victorian bricks instead of blocks, much easier to work with. The voids on either side turned out to be full of rubbish from when the roof was put on in the 1930's, broken asbestos slate and rubble! Ended up building the whole fireplace with reclaimed brick, got an expert in to fit a liner, plate and stove and no problems since. Looking forward to seeing the finished result on yours.
Glad it's not just me that resorts to using hands when trying to get mortar in ;)
It feels an all time low when i have to use my hands 🤣🤣
I laughed when I saw you throwing it in!
It worked a treat 😅😅
That's what she said@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK
😅
Nice work!
Definitely the white tiles. We used a mix of dark grey and the middle and I got bored of them. The white will stand out and be a bit different x
*Vikkie, well done, it will look great when it is finished. As to fireplaces renos.... I have no idea, but hopefully one of your subs can advise you... or go into a fireplace shop and ask them. 🙂nz*
Hi Vikkie. We used normal plaster board on the face of the chimney brest dot and dab fixed and skimmed it with plaster and used plasterboard edging beads round the edge of the opening, All was well for about 4 months of hot fires( the heat is unbelievable) then we noticed 2 small cracks in the upper left and right corners at the lintel level, with the amount of heat generated and the expansion of the lintel it caused these cracks. You cannot stop this tried cutting it out and filling and repainting still comes back, We used fire board for the inside sides and the back board this was fitted by the fireplace company when they installed the log burner and signed it off, As a side note I installed a sheet of brushed stainless steel sheet to the back board to reflect the heat out of the opening space we did originally paint the fire board sides and back but after a few fires the paint started to crack, Just a heads up and something to be aware of.
Sorry to hear this and thanks so much for the heads up!
Highly recommend slip bricks as light colour tile will show dust very quickly regardless of how often you clean, we was lucky & had the original brick for our two burners we installed.
I'm a day late to this party TH-cam decided to turn all my alert bells off (insert your own multiple swear words here). Great video Vikkie the block and brick work in such a tight space looks very tidy and the whole project is coming on a treat. I loved the video at 10:43 where you're asking the question "is backer board really important" whilst Hans is staring at his ball under your knee obviously thinking the far more important question "how long will mummy be keeping my ball for?" 😂
definitley washing up liquid to make it more pliable. I smiled seeing you cut common bricks with the ruddy great disc cutter (I would do as well) as I remember my father tapping them around three sides, then a sharp crack with his trowel - and voila, a perfectly cut brick. He did do it for about 50 years though.
Excellent job
Poor old santa how is he gonna fit, nice video, I have no idea about this type of build so being a gentleman ferme la bouche as they say in France, love it,
You're doing a great job there.
With a fire in it, the dark tile won’t be that dark. Also curious if wood burning the tile with texture being annoying to clean. Wish I knew more about fireplaces and specifically rock mass to absorb heat. Filling in the cavities is likely a minimal amount of mass to keep radiating heat. Density of rock and effects. Still, very curious about that kinda stuff.
My daughter had a similar recess and has the slate with tiles 2 down lights. Looks great
Great work!
Thanks so much 😀
Get the tiles up it’s ok as is and normal plaster board is fine. Good stuff
Grand job, always tricky doing stuff in confined spaces.
NB I'd have started from the top ... then, when your energy is waning, you don't have to lift so high. 🙃
😆😆
Well done young lady, you have made a very good job of that, and were tiling is concerned you don't have to use a backing board just tile straight onto the bricks, or if you want to just a skimming of plaster or cement rendering, good luck on the finished product.
Top job & it beats going to the gym!
Ha... it really does. I found new muscles in my thighs on this one 🤣
Hi Vicki, Have you heard of Thermaskirt? Would think with your clean pallet this would be ideal !
Thanks. Yes, I have had a quote from them in the past but never went ahead as we know we were going to remove walls and didn't like the idea of wet plumbing
Love the white tiles
Building with those large blocks is such a pain! They are so heavy! I just built a couple of walls in the garden with them and they really were the limit for me. I would say that you don't need the backer board as you already have a very solid surface. I prefer the natural coloured tiles. I think white against an almost black slate hearth might look to monochromatic and stark. Also, white would show the dirt more.
Use fire resistant boards in the hearth and on the breast to avoid cracking from the heat and to give a flat surface to tile over. White tiles will attract the inevitable soots and dust.
Can you do without backer board? of course you can. They didn't have backer board 100 years ago and their tiled fireplaces held up well.
However my opinion is that it will be easier to tile over backer board, you also have the opportunity to plumb up the walls and make the corners nice and square making tiling much easier.
Thanks - yes, I agree - it would be good to start with a perfectly flat and plumb surface!
Top lass!
thank you :)
Good to see you using dust suppression. Silica dust is very nasty stuff and can cause long term lung damage.
Interesting share. I enjoy problem solving. I wonder if a shelf support on the inside would have helped with the top breeze block level!
You can also use masonry bags like a pastry icing bag to fill small gaps or fill empty caulking tubes with mortar.
Thanks. I tried this years ago with an old cake piping bag and it split 😅 may try this however at a later date 😀
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK You need a bag made for mortar, not cake decorating..
@whitcwa seen it work for others though 🤣
Fit the stove outside of the fire place.
This will triple your output of radiant heat. A flue pipe entering the chimney breast higher up, will further increase your stove output.
In effect you will have 3 sides of output instead of one. The problem with the concept of a big stove fitted inset or inside the masonry. Is the 3 sides and top are masked, reducing the fast radiant heat output.
Also stoves aren't easy to turn down, so if it's too big you will roast.
If you research wood heat in America and Europe through the ages, you will find that they fit stoves this way. I feel it's a fashion in this country and to save space.
You could do a calculation to see how much heat you need for that room. A 7 kwatt stove is pretty hot.
A 14 kwatt is unbelievable.
You can get high output back boilers for these stoves, giving you a double whammy of free hot water. PM me if you want to discuss further. I don't sell these stoves I have just had a lot of experience of them.
You'll need to use a fibre cement board on the face of the chimney with a high output burner. Can't just dab and skim normal boards. It will crack in no time.
Whether you line the opening with fibre cement boards too, to square and plumb them up is up to you and how far out it is.
Don't just go for fire resistant plasterboard on the face, it's not enough. Them boards only give you a little extra time in a fire. They're still only paper faced plaster board at the end of the day. You need fibre cement boards, such as sts construction board. Dabbed to get them in position, then once adhesives cured, mechanical fix through the dabs to be sure the boards won't come away.
No need to use tile backer board. Paint the wall with 'Blue Grit' prior to tiling to get a good adhesion rather than SBR and your good to go, especially if the brickwork l is generally flat/Level.
Nice big steel plate on the back to retain heat like a radiator . Painted with stove black
That's a great idea!
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK we pulled out wood burner into the room so we can place larger cooking pots & kettle on top. The void behind I stacked the bricks from old night storage heaters Then the steel plate
Great idea
What a gal!
Aww, thanks 😀
I've done it you don't need much, it makes the mortar easier to work with just like plasticiser
If you don’t have plasticiser use a small amount of washing up liquid for a more workable mortar
I used brick slips...They are freaking awesome, and look just like a brick wall effect
I've been looking at them too actually 😊 They do look amazing but would need to put them on after installing the flooring for a seamless look. Not ruled it out yet
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK They are amazing...all my family thought I had built a full brick surround, when in fact we just stuck them on..had them on 10 years, still look as good as when I put them on ..
Good job
White will show any dirt and look a bit chavvy
Go with black
Been there , done that👍👍👍👍
Personally I would go for either a vintage patterned tile or a glossy rectangular rile (think tube station style) in a bright color like blue, red, or green.
The only reason I would use a backer board is to have a nice flat surface to work on
And that's a tempting reason :)
Good job , I'm surprised you didn't bang your head ,I used to bang my head whilst doing this task every other month 😂
ha... I did once! I caught it while filming for Instagram here lol instagram.com/p/C--r8g7on8_/?hl=en-gb
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK I thought you might of , when your into the job and concentrating you always bang your head. Lol
Will you seal up the space above the bricks and blockwork that you added to stop your heat going into the roof void? It could also be a slight fire vent risk if anything was carried into the roof space.
If you don’t have Plasticiser you can use Fairy Liquid.
Still haven't used plasticiser or even a squirt of fairy.
it sounded like you said FBI instead of PVA... so funny
I said SBR, next level up from PVA 😄
White tiles behind a fire? Will that not show the soot etc?
We had wondered this and wasn't sure. It sounds overall safer to go with the neutral one
if you dont have plasticiser you can use a little bit of fairy washing up liquid as a substitute.
i’ve used washing up liquid for plasticiser
There seems to be so many rules and regulations now it puts me off doing some stuff myself, are you in the trade and know all these rules & regs or do you get advice?
If you want to mix by hand use a wheelbarrow and a child’s garden ( short handle ) or a cut down garden hoe , you can then wheel your muck to where you need it , easier to get your trowel to the muck than trying to scoop out of a bucket , easier to clean when the barrow is put on its side and sluiced out 👍
Be sure to get heat tolerant plaster, its more expensive, my fire installer used standard plaster and its all blown and cracked on the chimney breast and either side.
Wow.. even on the face of the chimney breast? Thanks for the heads up!
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK dont know how to send a picture to you, but about a foot above it is cracked and loose and either side has actual holes blown. Plasterer friend said it was because he used normal to make it more cost effective probably, he should have used the heat stuff at least 2 foot all round, not needed on the whole span.
Great work ,but I fear you missed a trick by not backfilling. Making those sides solid not hollow would dramatically increase the thermal capacity of the bricks, increasing free heat when the fire is off.
Clever lady xx
Thanks so much 🥰
You’re putting in another stove? Since it’s too shallow for a wood fire place. So I’d lean towards the charcoal slate. It’ll make the space disappear around the stove which is your focus. If you want color you might want an enameled stove. That would bring the eye to the stove and fire window and then up to the mantelpiece and whatever you decorate with. Even with the a black stove I’d still go with a dark slate so it just disappears. But it all depends on what you want.
Oh Matron.....
You can use washing up liquid instead
Thanks! I didn't dare as I've seen SO many people in the past get slated on TH-cam for this 😅
Fireplaces are bloody awkward to work in aren't they? I would really carefully consider what you line the fireplace with (if at all), the amount of heat stoves produce is intense and a lot of materials struggle with the expansion and contraction. I imagine the grout lines will crack with the tiles, if you do go with them I wouldn't bother with the backer board, it's just another material to expand and contract at a different rate. Having done it a couple of times now in different ways (both cracked) I would just leave it as red brick or paint them. I've seen a couple of people suggest steel plate, that's a great option if a bit industrial looking, I'd probably leave a 2/3mm gap in your joins if you do that for expansion, you can always silicone the gaps to make it look tidier.
Cement backer board is definitely needed 👍
Thanks. Why do you think this is?
Henry doesn't look very happy about all this
No plasticer use a squirt of washing up liquid
Hi I am a bit confused you said in this weeks video you made reference to last week video did I miss last weeks thanks
Sorry, I had the full intention of sharing this last Sunday, but ended up having a break. I was referring to my video 2 weeks ago
Thank you love watching your videos have a good wkend 😅
Not sure about the tiles.
I may get shouted at by brickies on this one (but they all use ready mix in troughs anyway) ......
No plasticizer, no problem ...... use washing up liquid!
The important thing is not to make your mortar stronger than the bricks / blocks you are using. If you do they will eventually crack but you have not got that problem here and you used a soft enough mix.
I think the use of backer board for tiling comes from wet environments like bathrooms. In your situation it should not matter. What you do need to watch out for is the heating and cooling effects of the fire. As long as you make sure your air gaps around the fire are to spec all will be well. Bear in mind when tiling white will show the dirt and a fireplace is a dirty environment. But it is your house and Your choice ...... and You cleaning it afterwards! ;o)
Final bit of advise ..... get a bucket trowel! Thank me for that one later when you realise!
According to code the brick frog should have been on the top, the mortar wouldn't have fell out then
Re: your camera... You can always rely on technology to let you down.
make your motor wetter
second cement mixer £60 online
your morter looks too dry to me
When you have to mix 2 tons of concrete by hand you'll realise how cheap a cement mixer is lol
Haha.. yes! But I can't believe how much they've gone us since before lockdown!
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK What hasn't ?
But £400 compared to £120 🤪
It’s ok when you can pass the cost onto a customer. But for a small job like this mixing in a bucket is fine.
No need for backer board on brick or block.
You must ruin all your clothes doing diy!
Hah... I don't have many nice clothes anymore lol